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A Simple Method for Production of Pure Silica

from Rice Hull Ash
Article in Bioresource Technology July 2000
DOI: 10.1016/S0960-8524(99)00127-3

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Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 257262

A simple method for production of pure silica from rice hull ash
U. Kalapathy a,*, A. Proctor a, J. Shultz b
b

a
Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, 272 Young Ave, Fayetteville, AR 72704 ,USA
Arkansas Analytical Laboratory, High Density Electronics Center, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA

Received 8 October 1998; received in revised form 2 September 1999; accepted 2 September 1999

Abstract
Rice hull ash (RHA), a waste product of the rice industry is rich in silica. A simple method based on alkaline extraction followed
by acid precipitation was developed to produce pure silica xerogels from RHA, with minimal mineral contaminants. The silica gels
produced were heated to 80o C for 12 h to obtain xerogels. Silica and mineral contents of xerogels were determined by energy
dispersive X-ray (EDX) and inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectrometers, respectively. Xerogels produced from RHA
had 93% silica and 2.6% moisture. The major impurities of silica produced from RHA at an extraction yield of 91% were Na, K, and
Ca. Acid washing prior to extraction resulted in silica with a lower concentration of Ca (<200 ppm). However, nal water washing
of the xerogel was more eective in producing silica with lower overall mineral content (Na < 200 ppm and K < 400 ppm). X-ray
diraction patterns revealed the amorphous nature of silica xerogel. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) data indicated the presence
of siloxane and silanol groups. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Rice hull ash; Silica xerogels; Minerals

1. Introduction
Burning rice hull as fuel to generate energy results in
the waste product, rice hull ash (RHA). RHA is rich in
silica (about 60%) and can be an economically viable
raw material for production of silica gels and powders
(Kamath and Proctor, 1998; Chakraverty and Kaleemullah, 1991). RHA has been evaluated as an adsorbent of minor vegetable oil components (Proctor et al.,
1995; Proctor and Palaniappan, 1990). Although various uses for rice hull and RHA have been suggested in
the literature, their disposal or utilization remains a
major concern.
Soluble silicates produced from silica are widely used
in the glass, ceramics, and cement as a major component
and in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and detergents industries as a bonding and adhesive agents (Anon., 1997;
Laxamana, 1982). Silica also has been used as a major
precursor for a variety of inorganic and organometallic
materials which have applications in synthetic chemistry
as catalysts, and in thin lms or coatings for electronic
and optical materials (Lender and Ruiter, 1990; Brinker

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-501-575-4605; fax: +1-501-5756936.

and Scherer, 1990). Mizuki et al. (1993) and Krishnaro

and Godkhindi (1992) have investigated the formation
of silicon carbide from rice hulls at high temperatures
and Maeda and Komatsu (1996) studied the semiconductor properties of silicon carbide produced from rice
hull. Semiconductor industries require pure silica, currently produced by smelting quartz in a high temperature furnace, to produce ultrapure polycrystalline silicon
and silicon hydride. Development of a simple low energy
chemical method for producing pure silica should lead
to a variety of industrial applications for RHA.
Acid leaching (Chakraverty and Kaleemullah, 1991)
and gasication (Luan and Chou, 1990) methods have
been investigated for recovering silica from rice hull.
Amorphous silica from RHA can be extracted using low
temperature alkali extraction; the solubility of amorphous silica is very low at pH < 10 and increases sharply
pH > 10. This unique solubility behavior enables silica to
be extracted in pure form from RHA by solubilizing
under alkaline conditions and subsequently precipitating at a lower pH (Iler, 1979; Kamath and Proctor,
1998). This low energy method based on alkaline solubilization of amorphous silica could be more cost effective compared to the current smelting method.
Silica gel is a rigid three-dimensional network of
colloidal silica, and is classied as aquagel (pores are

0960-8524/00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 0 - 8 5 2 4 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 2 7 - 3

258

U. Kalapathy et al. / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 257262

lled with water), xerogel (aqueous phase in the pores is

removed by evaporation) or aerogel (solvent is removed
by supercritical extraction) depending on how they were
made. Xerogels are mainly used to prepare dense ceramics. Further, their high porosity and surface area
leads to applications such as catalytic substrates, ultralters, and chromatography column packing materials
(Brinker and Scherer, 1990). Since impurities present in
silica gels can aect their surface adsorption properties,
purity of the silica is very important in characterizing
rice hull silica adsorption.
In previous work, silica gel produced from RHA
using an alkali extraction method had over 65% moisture, 2% of sodium, 0.04% of potassium, 0.01% of calcium and traces (<0.01%) of other elements (Kamath
and Proctor, 1998). On the basis of dry material, Na, K,
and Ca concentrations in this gel would be 6%, 0.12%,
and 0.03%, respectively. Concentrations of Na and K in
this gel were relatively high compared to Na, and K
concentrations in commercial silica. Hence, an eective
mineral leaching step is necessary to produce xerogels
with reduced Na and K concentrations from RHA.
The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of: (1) washing RHA with acid prior to alkali
extraction, and (2) washing dried silica gel (xerogel) with
water, in reducing the mineral content of silica produced
by the alkali extraction method developed in our
laboratory.

for 1 h with constant stirring to dissolve the silica and

produce a sodium silicate solution. The solutions were
ltered through Whatman No. 41 ashless lter paper,
and the carbon residues were washed with 100 ml of
boiling water. The ltrates and washings were allowed
to cool to room temperature and were titrated with 1N
HCl with constant stirring to pH 7. Silica gels started to
precipitate when the pH decreased to <10. The silica gels
formed were aged for 18 h. Deionized water (100 ml)
was added to gels and then the gels were broken to make
a slurry. Slurries were then centrifuged for 15 min at
2500 rpm, the clear supernatants were discarded and the
washing step was repeated. The gels were transferred
into a beaker and dried at 80o C for 12 h to produce
xerogels. Selected silica xerogel samples were ground
and subjected to additional washing with water. All the
samples were stored in airtight plastic bottles. Major
modications in the present method relative to that of
Kamath and Proctor (1998) were incorporation of: (1)
an initial acid washing, (2) longer drying time to produce the xerogel, and (3) nal washing of the xerogel. A
ow diagram of the procedure is shown in Fig. 1.
2.3. Moisture content of silica gels

2. Methods

Moisture content of the silica gels was determined

using an air oven method (AOAC, 1990). About 1 g of
each sample was heated in aluminum moisture pans at
130o C for 1 h. The samples were cooled in a dessicator
and weighed. The weight loss (%) was recorded as the
moisture content of samples.

2.1. Acid washing

2.4. Chemical analyses of silica gels

An acid washing step was used to remove the small

quantities of minerals prior to silica extraction from
RHA in the following manner. Ten grams of RHA
samples were dispersed in 60 ml of distilled water, and
the pH was adjusted to 1, 3, 5 or 7 using 6 N and 1 N
HCl. These dispersions were stirred for 2 h, ltered
through Whatman No. 41 ashless lter paper and then
the RHA residues were washed with 100 ml of water.
The residues were used for silica extraction. The ltrate
and washings at each pH were collected and dried in an
evaporating dish. These dried ltrates containing soluble
minerals were re-dissolved to determine Na, K, Ca, Mg,
Fe, and Mn contents by inductively-coupled plasma
(ICP) emission spectrometer (Spectro Analytical Instruments, Fitchburg, MA).

The silicon content of the samples was estimated using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy (Kevex
Instruments, Valencia, CA). Mineral content of the xerogels was determined by nitric acid digestion followed
by atomic emission measurements using ICP emission
spectroscopy (Spectro Analytical Instruments, Fitsburg,
MA).
X-ray diraction patterns were obtained by a dual
goniometer Xpert XRD system (Philips Electronic Instruments, The Netherlands) using an acceleration
voltage of 40 kV and current of 45 mA. The diraction
angle was scanned from 10o to 90o 2h, at a rate of 5o /
min. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) data were obtained by adding 100 interferograms using a Impact 410
Nicolet instrument (Analytical Instruments, Madison,
WI).

2.2. Silica extraction

Silica was extracted from RHA adapting the method
of Kamath and Proctor (1998). Sixty ml portions of 1N
NaOH were added to the washed and unwashed RHA
samples and boiled in covered 250 ml Erlenmeyer asks

2.5. Experimental design and statistical analyses

Silica was prepared from unwashed and acid washed
RHA, with and without nal washing of xerogel with
water, to investigate the eect of acid washing of RHA

U. Kalapathy et al. / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 257262

259

Fig. 2. EDX spectrometric data of silica produced from RHA.

Fig. 1. Flow diagram of the procedure used to extract silica from

RHA.

and washing xerogel with water on the purity of silica.

Silica was also prepared from RHA washed at pH 7, as
an additional treatment control to establish the eect of
acid washing. All the treatments were performed in
triplicate in a completely randomized design. Data were
analyzed by ANOVA and means were separated by the
least signicant dierence when signicant F (P < 0.05)
values were observed (SAS, JMP IN Version 3.2.1. SAS
Institute, Cary, NC, 1997).

was estimated from the EDX data based on the assumption that all of the silicon was in the form of silica.
The silica and moisture contents of xerogels produced
from unwashed RHA were 93% and 2.7%, respectively.
Compositions of minerals leached from RHA by acid
washing at pH 1, 3, 5, and 7 are shown in Table 1. Since
acid leaching at a pH of 1 was found to be more eective
in removing Ca, Fe, and Mn from RHA, a washing step
at pH 1 was used in all subsequent acid leaching treatments. Unwashed RHA, and RHA washed at pH 7 were
used as controls to evaluate the eectiveness of acid
washing on the purity of the xerogel. The eect of acid
leaching and nal washing of xerogel on the mineral
content of RHA silica is shown in Table 2. Trace metal
ions such as polyvalent iron and manganese with 3+,
and 4+ charges, respectively, might have been strongly
adsorbed onto silica surface and subsequently trapped
inside the silica network during gel formation from silicate solution (Iler, 1979). As a result of this, Fe and Mn
might not be completely solubilized during the nitric
acid digestion for ICP measurements. The Fe and Mn
concentrations in the silica would be aected by the
factors such as surface area, porosity, and particle size
Table 1
Mineral content of acid solubles from RHA

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Silica extract composition
EDX elemental spectra of xerogel produced from
unwashed RHA showed major element silicon and impurities Na and Cl (Fig. 2). Silica content of the xerogels

Minerals

Acid leaching treatment

pH 1

pH 3

pH 5

pH 7

Sodium (%)
Potassium (%)
Calcium (%)
Magnesium (%)
Iron (ppm)
Manganese (ppm)

2.42a
29.5a
8.14a
2.57a
3204a
19745a

1.97a
31.7a
7.03a
2.85a
539b
1557c

1.81a
39.4a
2.77b
2.05a
20c
2228c

1.90a
37.5a
3.93b
2.41a
17c
5823b

Values are means of triplicate analyses. In each row, values with

dierent superscripts are signicantly (P < 0.05) dierent from each
other. Average standard deviations of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, and Mn
measurements were 0.2%, 3%, 0.6%, 0.3%, 20 ppm and 120 ppm,
respectively.

260

U. Kalapathy et al. / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 257262

Table 2
Mineral content of silica prepared from rice hull ash using various treatments
Minerals
Sodium (%)
Potassium (%)
Calcium (%)
Magnesium (%)
Iron (ppm)
Manganese (ppm)

Treatments
1

4.486b
0.266a
0.047a
0.008a
19.8
<1

7.120a
0.133b
0.037a
0.007a
33.7
<1

6.577a
0.164b
0.018b
0.002a
14.3
<1

0.019c
0.036c
0.047a
0.007a
34.6
<1

0.021c
0.039c
0.019b
0.006a
32.2
<1

Treatment 1 Silica was prepared from unwashed RHA. Treatment 2 Silica was prepared from RHA washed at pH 7. Treatment 3 Silica
was prepared from acid washed RHA. Treatment 4 Silica was prepared from unwashed RHA and washed after silica was dried. Treatment 5
Silica was prepared from acid washed RHA and washed after silica was dried.
*
Values are means of triplicate analyses. In each row, values with dierent superscripts are signicantly (P < 0.05) dierent from each other. Average
standard deviations of Na, K, Ca, and Mg, measurements were 0.5%, 0.1%, 0.01%, and 0.001%, respectively.
**
See the note in Section 3 regarding Fe and Mn measurements.

of the silica. Hence, the following discussion will be

focused on the eect of washing on the major impurities
Na, K, and Ca. The initial acid washing did not improve
the purity of silica when compared to the purity of silica
obtained from unwashed RHA and RHA washed at pH
7. Incorporation of an additional washing step after
drying the extracted silica, resulted in a silica product
with even lower mineral (Na, and K) content. Washing
the dried silica (xerogel) with deionized water is more
eective than washing the silica gel (aquagel) prior to
drying, in removing minerals from the silica. This could
be due to entrapment of metal ions in the silica gel
network, which may not be leached out by water
washing. Drying silica gel to a very low moisture level
might result in disruption of the silica gel network
structure and would free the trapped mineral ions (Na,
and K). Sodium and potassium ions might be easily
leached out by washing the dried gel with water. The Ca
content was comparatively lower for silica prepared
from acid washed RHA. This may be due to the fact
that, Ca being the major divalent cation in RHA, will
require lower pH washing as it is strongly adsorbed on
the silica surface at pH > 5 (Iler, 1979). Therefore, to
keep the Ca content in silica at a lower concentration,
an initial acid washing might be required. Further, it
should be noticed that the silica extraction yields were
similar for unwashed RHA, RHA washed at pH 7 and
acid washed RHA. These data indicate that nal
washing of xerogel is necessary to keep the overall
mineral content at a lower concentration. However, if a
very low concentration of Ca is required, acid pre-wash
of RHA can be used without any adverse eect on silica
yield.

content of RHA was 39% (determined by ashing at

660o C for 8 h). Since silica is insoluble at pH < 10, highly
alkaline conditions were necessary for ecient extraction of silica from RHA. Yields of silica extracted from
10 g of RHA using 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 N NaOH are
shown in Table 3. The pH of dispersion of RHA in 0.1,
0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 N NaOH were 12.0, 12.4, 12.6, and
12.9, respectively. During the course of extraction, the
pH of these dispersions decreased to 9.8, 10.8, 11.0, and
11.4, respectively at the end of the 1 h extraction period.
Silica yield from RHA for 1 N NaOH extraction was
91% (see Table 4). Extraction with more concentrated
NaOH did not improve the silica yield. Therefore, 1 N
NaOH was used to extract silica from RHA in this
study.

3.2. Silica extraction yield

3.3. Structural features of RHA silica

EDX analysis of RHA non-carbon materials showed

that silica content of RHA (assuming that all of the Si is
in the form of silica) was about 54% (Fig. 3). Carbon

As shown in Fig. 4, the broad X-ray diraction pattern of RHA silica, which is typical for amorphous
solids (Kamath and Proctor, 1998), conrmed the ab-

Fig. 3. EDX spectrometric spectra of non-carbon materials in RHA.

U. Kalapathy et al. / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 257262

261

Table 3
Eect of concentration of sodium hydroxide used for silica extraction
on the yield of silica
Extraction

Yield of silica (%)

0.1 NaOH
0.25 N NaOH
0.5 N NaOH
1.0 N NaOH

Not extracted
17c
35b
91a

*
Values are means of triplicate measurements. Values with dierent
superscripts are signicantly (P < 0.05) dierent from each other.
Average standard deviation of silica yield was 2.3%.

Table 4
Yield and moisture content of silica from washed and unwashed rice
hull ash (RHA)
RHA

Yield of silica
(%)

Moisture content
(%)

Acid washed
Washed at pH 7
Unwashed

91a
91a
89a

2.6a
2.4a
2.7a

*
Values are means of triplicate measurements. In each column, values
with similar superscripts are not signicantly (P < 0.05) dierent from
each other. Average standard deviations of silica yield (%) and moisture contents (%) were 4 and 0.5, respectively.

Fig. 5. Fourier transform infrared spectra of silica produced from

RHA.

4. Conclusions
This study revealed that silica xerogels with 93% silica
content and minimal mineral contaminants can be
produced from RHA using a simple low energy chemical
method. The silica extraction yield from RHA was 91%.
The initial acid washing of RHA resulted in a lower Ca
content in the silica xerogel. The nal washing of the
xerogel led to a silica product with lower Na, and K
contents. Incorporation of initial acid washing of RHA
and nal washing of the xerogel resulted in a pure silica
with total Na, K, and Ca contents of <0.1%.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Producers Rice Mill (Stuttgart,
AR) for providing RHA; and Bruce Cottingham,
(Tyson Foods, Springdale, AR) for his assistance during
this study.
References

Fig. 4. X-ray diraction pattern of silica produced from RHA.

sence of any ordered crystalline structure. In a previous

investigation, X-ray diraction studies of raw and
heated RHA, indicated relatively high disordered
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to a more highly ordered structure, the absence of a
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thermal insulation properties of the ash (Proctor, 1990).
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bonds (SiOSi). The peaks between 1200 and 700 cm1
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